And had her thrown into a psychiatric ward for a week.Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, [grandmother] Lona [Vernon] ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”
“Don’t taze my granny!” exclaimed Tinsley. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s “obstructive” behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then was assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona.
The tactical situation was daunting; at this point, the police had only a 10-1 advantage over a subject who — according to Duran’s official report — had taken an “aggressive posture” in her hospital bed. The sacred imperative of “officer safety” dictated that the subject be thoroughly softened up in order to minimize resistance.
Accordingly, one of the officers approached Lona and “stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation,” narrates the complaint, based on Lona’s account. One of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, “striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain,” and unconsciousness. Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed.
Any bets on whether, should the tazing have proven fatal to Mrs. Vernon, Mr. Tinsley would be facing Manslaughter charges?
Here's hoping that the lawsuit is successful in bankrupting the town of El Reno, OK. If the town is forced to shut down due to the extreme folly of its elected officials and their duly appointed employees, perhaps other communities will notice.
Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres. (In this country it is wise to kill an Admiral to encourage the others."- Voltaire, Candide
Well, at least she didn't have a pistol, and nobody died.
Via Aretae.
Nevermind how unbelievably dangerous it is to generate sparks in the presence of combustible materials and pure oxygen.
ReplyDeleteI no longer respect any cops' authority because of stories like these. It's probably going to get me into trouble someday.
ReplyDeleteI really wish I didn't believe this.
ReplyDeleteJim
There are jerks in every profession. Some of them are cops. Shouldn't be a shock.
ReplyDeleteWoFat, true dat.
ReplyDeleteLike we say in the old country... what goes around comes around. And when it comes around for these low rent scum-suckers, the Tazer should be hooked up to a 440 volt industrial line.
ReplyDeleteMikeH.
Yeah, like how my petite 5' 3 non-verbal daughter was (without any weapon, of course)thrown down face down into gravel, scraped up, bruised up, and handcuffed, thrown into a police car, because the WOMAN (ass) police officer thought that's how you treat a missing person to bring them back safely?
ReplyDeleteI have her badge ID. Hell hath no fury than a mother who sees that.
Yeah I'm sure that old woman in a hospital bed was posturing a possible confrontational pose.
Some days, I wonder what kind of ppl become cops, the woman I dealt with definitely had a power ego thing going on.
Under the mantra of "officer safety" we gets all sorts of abuses. I'd always thought police officers should put their safety after that of the citizens they serve. I guess not. The solution is to sue the shit out of the municipalities every time they screw up. Cops respond to violence with violence but lost lawsuits get changes to training, policy, and staffing.
ReplyDeleteSurely the story's missing something. The octogenarian had a tactical shotgun in the bed with her, right? She had her hand on a bomb detonator, right? She was actually a 25-year-old ninja in disguise, right?
ReplyDeleteNo?
Then sue, baby, sue. Abuse of authority in the name of "officer safety" doesn't fly with me and it better not fly any farther in the community where this happened.
Duuuuuuude . . . WTF?!?!?!?!
ReplyDelete(I know, brilliant comment. But I can't get my mouth to close long enough to form words.)
Some cops are fine individuals. Some are real assholes. Unlike in most professions, I'm not sure that any meaningful number are ordinary.
ReplyDeleteThe only things that seem to draw a man into the police force are either a genuine desire for public service or a desire for the authority to do whatever the fuck he wants and not suffer legal consequences.